: it was voted down three consecutive times. host: here's an e-mailfrombobandflorida. making the economic argument against right-to-work state. and then there are people who have an economic argument on the other side of it. if we read a piece earlier in the washington post on what right-to-work states due to the broader economy. -- due to the state's economy? and now this isn't egypt. on the front page of the washington post, amid this turmoil, aid for egypt is on its way. the u.s. and a coalition of international lenders are pushing ahead with billions of dollars of loans and other help for egypt and neighboring states. so, money going to the country despite the violence there. and on the domestic front, the richmond times dispatch, courtesy of the newseum, health care law includes from a surprising $60 coverage free. bob in rapid city, south dakota, republican caller. caller: whee are a right-to- work state. in the past week we had an article in the newspaper that we are 16th in the nation in income. we averaged 44,000. where is the nation averages 41,000. so it's just not true that a

wassenatorbobcorker.here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> realizing that we do not have a lot of cards when it comes to the tax issue before the end of the year. it will leave the presidency and the senate in the hands of the democrats. many people are putting forward a theory that has merit where you go against the president with a 2% increase on the top 2%. all of a sudden the shift goes back to entitlements. all of a sudden once you give him that tax rate, lesser that what he has been talking about, the focus shifts to entitlements and puts us in a place where we can actually do something to save this nation. i am actually beginning to believe that that is the best route for us to take. host: senator corker, saying that there are more republicans willing to do that. you heard him lay out the strategy there. lots of debate in washington about who should give and how much. we are asking you to weigh in on that conversation and tell us what you are willing to sacrifice. this comes from a piece from a few days ago, from "national journal magazine." it is about americans not wil

we are heading in the same direction. thank you and have a wonderful new year. host: a tearfrombobnowin the democrat light. caller: thank you for letting me have a chance to speak. i am more optimistic -- i a more pessimistic than optimistic. i just do not think they will ever get together like they should. my one comment is when they start speaking about the cuts and the entitlements, the always a social security, medicare, medicaid. that is not the only entitlements. every government program that has a retirement benefit, a health-care benefit, those are entitlements, two, up to and including the entitlements for the congressman. let's be fair. when they start talking about entitlements and hold it to those three items, let's hold their feet to the fire and make them talk about entitlements for the other folks, too. host: appreciate you calling this morning. donna writes about this on twitter. if that to facebook here. -- back to you facebook here. budget showdown hits the keep week. that is of the front page reminding us of the deadline looming. it is a bloomberg story here ou

take responsibility for it. i canrememberbobmichaelformer republican leader in the house saying i'm proud of voting for this. if you want a two bit congressman vote for somebody else. he kept getting reelected. host: john now on the democratic line. caller: good morning. thanks for having me on. my main thing is saying i think the problem is our g.d.p. we don't produce anything. we don't create any jobs. as far as china is concerned, we don't tariff, we don't put that high of a tariff on their imports but yet i don't know the exact numbers but i believe it's a lot higher that they tax our imports in their country. and the whole thing with jobs. he created the apple scommuret in california in his garage but yet when he got successful he moves all his company over to china, giving chinese people jobs. if steve jobs was born in china he wouldn't even have a garage therefore he wouldn't be able to create the apple computer. so i just think we just don't do enough for the people of this country. and the people who are in position to create jobs and do this do not reinvest in the countr

insurance of the up there? host: thank you for the call. is this from bill king. thisisbob, goodmorning. caller: happy new year. host: to you, too. caller: all the republican party has to do is to allow for what the voters voted on by putting obama back in office, which was the mandate that people earning above $250,000 pay 4.5%.eer lousy that is not a hair off their chinny-chin-chin. everybody is looking to fight against the tax increase for the wealthiest people. they take a ski vacation in france and a cost $20,000. they spend money like it is garbage. cheerleading for tax breaks for people who do not need it. they have admitted they do not need it. the republicans and the democrats are not facing the key issue with our budget, which is medical cost. it is insanity we do not hear enough and i wish c-span would have more programs dealing with all of the options that could lessen the burden on the government and the taxpayer for the medical costs. i believe that in medicare buy- in -- i have 10 years left to go until medicare. i pay $620 a month for my health care. that is a lot of mon